Monday, June 20, 2016

First, who has given the state the right to tell people they must wear a seat belt? Yeah, it's their law and who cares? If you want to accept their premise, then send them a bill for compliance of their order. It's not a valid law as it has no place in the Constitution of either the Federal Government nor State Government. Those are arguments in themselves and not the real intention of this article but I had to sound off anyway.

As the picture shows, our highways and streets have been littered with these signs throughout the state. Under what authority did these signs get put up? If you own a business and put signs out like this, you will notice them missing within a few days as VDOT is instructed to remove them and throw them out. If you keep putting up signs like this, you may get in a great deal of trouble. If you can get in trouble for putting signs like this up, what makes some entity such as Drive Smart Virginia think they are above the law?

Did Drive Smart Virginia, the provider of these signs, get permission from each locality? Did they pay the locality a fee for this? Did the locality you live in hold a public meeting to get public input on the mass distribution of these signs? No? Why not? Is Drive Smart Virginia in violation of many of Virginia's laws? Well it sure seems that way. So who is behind Drive Smart Virginia and who is Drive Smart Virginia? From their own website.

Members of the Board of Directors include leaders from private industry, state and federal government, law enforcement, military, media, and traffic safety organizations.

DRIVE SMART Virginia was founded in 1995 by six of Virginia's insurance companies, including Allstate, GEICO, Nationwide, State Farm, USAA, and Virginia Farm Bureau. Since 1997, Erie Insurance, Farmers Group, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Liberty Mutual, Progressive, Rockingham Group, and Alfa Alliance have also joined the organization

The littering of these signs say more than we are trying to promote safety. Promoting safety? Nice, but I do not buy this crap. It actually says, we are part of the nanny state; centralist's who do not think you have any rights other than what we tell you you have. We do not have to follow the laws we put on you. We are watching you and if you do not do as we say, we are going to punish you. Who paid for these signs? Well, you did. You paid for them through your insurance premiums. And the knuckleheads who head up the insurance companies use your money against you.

So, if you use any of these insurance companies, file a complaint with them, file a complaint with your locality, file a complaint with the police, file a complaint with the state. Take the signs down if you paid for them. They are yours and not Drive Smart America's since they used your money to pay for them. They are a non profit organization dedicated to the nanny state and against Constitutional rights and want to control your behavior. Don't take my word on this. Read their site. It says they seek to control your behavior right on there.

In my own opinion, I do think that buckling up is a good idea in general. But if you are going to demand I do it, then I am less likely to even consider it and not do it. Drive Smart Virginia is part of a growing problem we are seeing throughout this country. Not part of any solution. Throw them out. Switch to an insurance company that does not support these nanny state tactics and littering of our highways and roadways against state and local laws. They seem to have no issue violating the laws, why support them? And talk about environmental issues with these signs? The costs to make them and then they are littering all over the state with impunity? At least the environmentalist's should be up in arms over this and one has to question if Drive Smart Virginia bothered to do an environmental impact study before making these signs. Are they in violation of the EPA? A complain to the EPA would answer that question fast.